The Federal Coalition has pledged a bucket of money to fix the black spots in mobile coverage; Coonabarabran farmer Elliot Shannon says it's a great idea but he suspects the money won't even touch the sides of the problem.

A farmer who fought the Coonabarabran fires says better mobile service would have made the job less stressful but he questions whether the Federal Opposition's $100 million package will be sufficient to solve the problem.

The Nationals' Luke Hartsuyker says the Coalition will spend $100 million to reduce mobile phone black spots in regional areas if it wins the election, Labor's Sharon Bird says the government is already providing a platform for improved mobile services through the NBN rollout. Anna Vidot has more.

The US International Trade Commission has blocked imports of some older model Samsung mobile devices following complaints by Apple that the South Korean company had violated its patents.

The ruling by the US-based trade body was the latest in a long-running and bitter global battle over alleged patent infringement between the two smartphone and tablet computer giants.

The ITC ruled that Samsung had infringed two Apple patents - numbers 949 and 501, dealing with touch-screen actions and headphone jack plug-ins - but cleared the South Korean company of charges that it had violated four more.

Apple welcomed the ITC ruling while Samsung expressed its disappointment.